Fish don't like tap water in my new home... Do I need an RO system?

HI all-

I am posting here because my LFS has been of no help to me concerning this issue and I am having trouble figuring things out on my own.

Tank details:
I have a 20 gallon tall freshwater aquarium that I've been running for 3 years now. The only "chemicals" I regularly add to the water are Prime and, less frequently, Flourish. The only plants I have growing right now are a couple of crypts. I typically do 1 or 2 water changes per week. Never had issues with water quality- ammonia is always 0, nitrite is always 0, and nitrate is always very low. I keep the temperature around 78 degrees F. HOB filter, and 75W heater that I just replaced.

Livestock:
Currently I have an albino BN pleco that I've had for about 2.5 years, 3 emerald eye rasboras, and one von rio tetra. I understand these fish prefer to live in groups, and I had more rasboras (including some harlequinn rasboras before I got the von rios) and von rios, but as I will explain, they keep dying off, one by one. I also have a snail population that appeared after adding new fish about 1.5 years ago.

The problem:
I moved to a new apartment in July 2016. I've never had issues with fish dying or water quality before, but right after I moved, I started seeing my fish die, one by one. All my harlequin rasboras died within a couple weeks after moving. The emerald eyes and pleco seemed fine. I bought some von rio tetra to replace the harlequin rasboras, and they all died as well (except for the one poor guy that is still alive). Lately, my emerald eyes have been dying off, too. I've had these guys for about two years, so I figured maybe they're just getting old? Not sure. There are no signs of disease or abnormal behavior in the fish, though the von rios looked like they were having swim bladder issues.

Anyway, since my typical water parameters are always good, and I keep up with water changes, I don't think the problem is with maintenance. Since these issues started when I moved, I think my fish are having issues with the tap water in my new place (it's a fairly old house). I bought a home water test kit, and it tested negative for nitrite, nitrate, lead, harmful bacteria, chlorine, and pesticides. However, the water has a chlorine-y or chemical-like smell to it, and doesn't taste good. I bought a PUR filter to attach to my kitchen sink that makes the water smell and taste better, so I know whatever is in the water can be removed. However, the PUR filter is inconvenient to use for aquarium water changes, and I still do not know what it could be in the water that is harming my fish.

Any ideas on what could be in my tap water that is harming my fish? I've heard about RO systems, but don't know much about them or whether one would help in my case. Any information you have on RO systems would also be appreciated.

Thanks a bunch!

Cheers,

mercN

 

Is your new home in the same area, or receive its water from the same source? Some places use chloramines, which breaks down to ammonia over time. That's probably where the smell comes from. Have you been able to test your pH, or your water hardness (KH and GH)?

Do you filter out your water through the device before adding to the aquarium?

How did you acclimate your fish to the new tank water?

 

In some places the water can have higher chlorine than others.. also I would test it for Ammonia as well in case. Sometimes tap water can have Ammonia present.

When doing water-changes start doubling up on your Prime, there have been cases of water companies having fluctuations with their chlorine and prime being unable to neutralize all of it, causing massive issues and death.

 

atc84, my pH is typically around 7.8. The hardness is always quite high, though at the moment I don't have an exact reading because I am away from home. I can check on this later if you'd like. I have not been using the filter for water changes as it is inconvenient and the filter is meant to handle small volumes of water used for drinking (not sure how it would handle constant water changes).

When I get new fish, I let them float in the baggies from the fish store for about 15-20 mins, then add my tank water to them and let them sit a bit longer, then dump them into a net and add them to my tank.

My new home is about 1 mile from my old place, so it is close, but I'm guessing the water comes from a different source as I did not have this problem at my old apartment.

I've also noticed a white, crusty residue leftover whenever I spill a little water on the outside of the tank glass and don't wipe it up before it air dries. This crust has also been forming on my filter.

I may look for a test for chloramines and ammonia. If one of these is the culprit, perhaps I can just use more Prime? Would that handle the problem?

 

Luckily you can only overdose Prime by using it upwards of 6X the recommended dose so using double until you can pinpoint exactly what it is can give you a little peace of mind

Also I believe the crust is simply from hard water, I get this crust too living in the city, we have very hard water here so testing the GH and KH may shed some light on the true parameters of your water

 

Okay, my GH is usually between 150 and 300 ppm, and my KH is usually about 180 ppm. My test strips are not incredibly accurate, though.

 

mm yeah, the white crust is from the water hardness. If the water is much different from your previous residence, then the change will most certainly be a shock to the fish. A longer, more step by step acclimation process is better for this. No need to rush it. There's a drip method, using airline hose, I don't know the exact technique. I would start with this being the culprit, along with the water being not the best quality.

 

Hi, welcome to the forum

I would test your new water for ammonia after taking a sample and adding dechlorinator to it. Make sure to test for GH and KH too. The residue you describe could also be from using a water softener but the GH and KH tests will show that.

 

So, what do you guys think? Will a RO system fix the water quality issues?

 

Can you do the tests I mentioned in the above post?

 

You have a couple of issues there, worth examining.
The first would seem to be evolution. Your fish are from very soft rainforest habitats. Their bodies are tuned to mineral content, as fish need to keep a balance between water in and out of their bodies. They have huge kidneys to cope with this.
Softwater fish can adapt to hard, to a degree (it doesn't go the other way). But limescale forming says very hard. I lived for a short period in a region with extremely hard water (and tons of scale), and no one could keep tetras alive there. My neighbour was desperate to have neons, and they only lasted a few weeks, at most.
My livebearers, from hardwater in Mexico, were spectacular. They loved the water.
You can get into a very expensive and awkward to use RO system, or you can adapt your fishkeeping to your water, and start investigating coastal species or North and Central American ones.
Water can vary in close by areas - my tap now is 80ppm, while in my old home 15km away, it was 140ppm. The API kits are fairly useless in that regard, even though hardness is essential information. You have to buy side kits, or expensive strips.

You have the strips, so knowing your GH and KH would help others help out. CindiL is not the only one who wants to assist and is wondering!